113896-9-16-nexus-report-tldr
Content ---- ---- This weeks interview was with one of the housing staff..... obviously questions were going to be about housing :P There are some crazy awesome solo things coming in the next drop btw :) And seriously Vic, great job man. I don't know where you find the time to do this every week, but rock on! | |} ---- They've sure been avoiding talking about solo content. Would you happen to be able to point me towards a thread/interview/article/whatever where they've actually made some concrete statements about what's coming? | |} ---- ---- I don't know where it is on the forums (I think they talked about this at some point) but they mentioned the defile and the single player dungeon here. I haven't heard that's off the table. Is it on the PTR? | |} ---- It's very subjective, I suppose. I'm very excited about this NR. I love the housing in this game to death, and almost everything I was hearing was sweet music to my ears. I'm sure you'll get your chance. They've been talking about a lot, but they have a weekly focus. If you want the focus to be on something else, you should ask about it. Obviously, a lot of us housing nuts wanted our questions answered and Carbine heard us. | |} ---- Much of the upcoming stuff (inc. all the defile content) is on the PTR. The PTR thread has all the updates as well if you want to read through them. | |} ---- Is this what you mean? | |} ---- Yay! Is that in the game now or the PTR? Last time I asked this, I had to kind of just eat the crate space lost. To be fair, it was a long time ago. | |} ---- Might not be exactly what you're looking for, but: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/632/feature/8917 and http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/632/feature/8927 From the 2nd: MMORPG.com: Finally, is there anything you’d like to add for players looking forward to Omnicore 1? Moore: The only other thing I’ll say is that again, we want to continue to reiterate that the Nexus Saga: Journey into Omnicore 1 is the realization of a promise that we gave to our players that the most epic story moments in the game are going to be accessible to the widest group of people. Anyone who wants to get into the story does not have to get 20 or 40 people together. They can experience that content on their own, and their own pace, and it is specifically designed to tell them the best story about what is taking place on nexus. From a design philosophy standpoint we’re very happy about how this has turned out. I think it’s also another example of our commitment to endgame content that is not for groups, it is replayable, it has its own rewards, and is another piece of the tapestry of the things that players can do once they reach endgame. This is the kind of thing that they should continue to expect as we move forward. Anyhow, thanks for the summary, Vic. Looks like some great housing changes. | |} ---- ---- ---- Literally didn't see it, so that's news to me if it's been available since day one. I literally asked in housing chat during a genuinely helpful conversation and was told that I was stuck with it and they were working on it. Never heard otherwise. | |} ---- ---- Thing is, I swear I couldn't delete anything out of the crate, or I wouldn't have asked (I did seriously look at the interface). Was there a period where they had it disabled? I mean, it kind of helps I've never had to delete anything; I don't have a ton of stuff I don't use. | |} ---- ---- ---- Me neither. I just never had the money to go nuts and just buy a lot of stuff I didn't know that I'd use. ItemPreviewImproved helped a lot with that. Ended up being that I never came close to my limit except in lighting (the Skull Dance Bayou is at 20/20). If it's essentially becoming a limit of 2000, I don't think I'm even going to come close. I mean, if I have a housing item that costs a gold, and I get 2000 of just those, I have to pay 20 plat. And while there's a lot cheaper than a gold, there's a lot more, I think, more expensive. So I don't think I'm coming anywhere near the 2000 mark on ownership. | |} ---- You'll probably want to check out the last few of these I did. It looks like they're revamping gear into more of a linear gear progression, so there will be reasons to do things outside raids. Vet shiphands are coming. At least there will be a lot more to do. Raids will always be at the top of a linear gear progression; they require the most coordination and logistics, so they're rewarded higher. But at least you can't buy gear into GA anymore, as they're nerfing crafted items by some amount. | |} ---- I've been following your TL;DRs for a few weeks, but my issue is they haven't addressed the fact that once upon a time they were talking about having separate progression tracks; similar in some ways to how PvP gear progression is separate from PvE gear progression (ie. specific stats on raid gear that isn't on non-raid gear). The idea behind it was the raiders would still have the most powerful gear overall, but non-raiders wouldn't be halted in their progression if they choose not to raid; it's what initially drew me to the game to begin with. The way every game works endgame gear progression works in every game out there now is, as you said, very linear and tends to work something like this: Tier 1 (everybody's introductory max level gear) -> Tier 2 (dungeon gear) -> Tier 3 (raid gear). With that system, the majority of players sputter out in their progression within a week or two of hitting the level cap. It's a huge part of the reason that we've seen so much boom to bust in MMO launches over the last few years: the soloist (or small group only player) gets into the new game; hits level cap and finds that once again they're going to be left spinning their wheels after a week or two of dailies; so they move back to their old game or onto something new that they hope won't stall them out because they don't like the banging-your-head-against-a-wall experience of progression raiding. However, when Gaffney was doing the rounds last year talking about the rewarding solo experience they had planned, he indicated that gear progression was going to look something like this: Raiders: Tier 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> etc. (additionally, raiding gear would also have unique stats that would be required in raids that non-raid gear would not have) Non-Raiders and Soloists: Tier 1 -> 1.5 -> 2 -> 2.5 -> etc. (additionally, specific crafting materials were supposed to be restricted to solo and small group content) That was a genius notion, but is nowhere to be seen in the game today and the Devs have not addressed this once since the game went live. From everything I've read, seen, and heard, every time a player asks a developer about solo content, they act as if they're surprised by the very notion of solo content; or they hand out a canned "oh there's some great stuff coming in Drop 3"; or they mumble something about veteran shiphands. Six months ago they were frequently acknowledging the fact that the majority of the players were going to be soloists and they had great plans to keep those players engaged; but now they behave as if they're surprised that actually turned out to be true and have no idea what to actually do about it. Sorry for going off on a bit of a rant. There does seem to be a lot of good stuff coming, and they've addressed a lot of other players' concerns, so that's good news. And on the topic of housing, I wish someone would have asked if they were going to remove item limits by category: I had a plan for a theater on my plot, but was restricted by the amount of lights that I could use... #sadface | |} ---- While not perfect, this was / largely is the case. AFAIK Strikethrough was the stat that was stacked on raid gear while crafted gear gave good main stats at the expense of secondariness such as Strikethrough. While we can argue over how well it worked (gear obviously needed some serious TLC at launch), the intent was there, and the system was, if not practically there, theoretically in place. JTal has posted ad nauseam about the gear changes he's implementing; that's probably a good place to check for whether or not they will keep strikethrough as a necessary raid stat or not. As far as content progression goes (leaving gear asside for now), the solo stuff coming out looks absolutely fantastic. the Defile looks brilliant, and the public 20 man event is everything I could hope for in a major public event (bombing strain from aircraft, taking on a huge baddie, strategic gameplay.... brilliant :D ) Shaper Korol, now corrupted, is cupcaking BA, and his 5 man fight is awesome! and of course, Omnicore 1 (coming soon) is fantastic. There's already a vid of it posted on YT... LOVE IT | |} ---- I know that a lot of this comes down to itemization being completely screwed up, but at the same time I really don't see how a parallel system like this works in a loot dependent system. If the elder gem store is "opened up to the public" and rep system made to work in conjunction with it, then I can see how it can be made to work so that raiders and non-raiders can have separate progression tracks. But right now, and I've heard/read nothing about this changing, everything on the elder gem vendor is walled off behind group based achievements, and you can't even get a full set of any type of gear via a vendor anyway. If that isn't changing, then they're not addressing the issue for two-thirds of the MMO consumer base. I guess the issue that I'm having is that they're not just laying it out on the table with a "this is how progression is to work after Drop 3" Nexus report. I've been playing MMOs for nearly 15 years, but I haven't really played the WoW-styled themepark games until relatively recently (most of my experience is in SWG and CoH prior to a few years ago), and so loot dependant progression is abhorrent to me; I don't mind an either/or system where you can get upgrades via vendor or loot drop, but being beholden to the RNG for gear progression is something I just can't do. If I'm looking at having to grind out rep in a daily zone that I may or may not enjoy for a month to possibly buy new pants and gadget while simultaneously crossing my fingers that I get a 1/10000 loot drop to upgrade my gloves, I just don't see myself able to stick with this game. | |} ---- See it's already been answered, but anyway :P Yes, it was taken in live-game, and that's a good reminder for me to include that note next time I make screenshots :D | |} ---- ---- Well, here's the problem with a branching system, because we kind of had it at the lower levels. There were multiple ways to get everything. The reality was, people follow the path of least resistance. So instead of grinding against RNGesus, people bought gear and stacked their assault stat like they were planning for the drought. That meant the original plans to have raid and solo gear be different simply didn't work; everyone stacked AP because it was weighted so heavily. That's on Carbine and is being addressed. I think the biggest problem with splitting solo and raid content and giving progression paths in both is that solo content gets done so fast. People forget that almost the entirety of drop1 was solo-oriented, while drop3 will be the first raid added since launch (along with a lot more solo content). So it's not like solo stuff isn't getting attention, it's just so damn easy to complete that solo content tends to be a fleeting blessing. Drop1 is already done, forgotten, and scorned for being so easy to get through and for being full of dailies. Are there ways around this to make solo content that matters, is variable, difficult, and doesn't revolve around the daily grind? Sure, I've suggested a few in the past. But they're extremely labor intensive, and likely at the planning stages if they exist yet. Meanwhile, raids have a better time v reward ratio since DS isn't even done yet. Their problem there has been making sure the content isn't gated too harshly beyond people's ability to organize for them. In the end, I think Carbine's doing what they can to progress the story and keep solo players following a trail of crumbs. We'd have another solo patch already if it hadn't been pushed back for this megadrop. | |} ---- ---- Sorry, missed this line, and I can actually answer it! :D They have to limit lights because that's what destroys your system resources. They must have done something in optimization if 40 inside and 40 outside is viable in housing. Those same lights and holographics are what makes Thayd run at 10 FPS for some rigs. | |} ---- I kind of wish you could donate repairs on plots. That way, if it goes broken while you're sleeping and someone needs it, they can drop a few gold to activate it again. | |} ---- Vic, thanks for the reply. I understand that a big part of my feeling of "sputtering out" in this game has everything to do with messed up itemization at the game's launch. But, it's really not all that different from every other game out there on the market: if you don't raid, your character's progression will be halted shortly upon hitting level cap. To me the issue with the separate progression tracks is that they didn't take the concept far enough: I think they literally need to create the same level of separation that exists between PvP and PvE gear and apply that type system to Raid gear and Non-raid gear. No sarcasm: I love dailies. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. I can grind for months and months; no issues with that. I just have to feel like I'm working towards a goal, but in a RNG dependent system it feels like you're just waiting for your number to pop so you can yell "bingo!" New content is always welcome, but if it's content with no end goal for me, I kind of lose interest fast. Anyway, I feel like I'm hijacking this thread, which is supposed to be a discussion of what was talked about in the Nexus report, and I'm turning it into a discussion of what wasn't talked about, so I think it's best if I bow out of this thread right now and start one about this specific topic. Also, good to know about the lights. | |} ---- I think you'll find I'm a fan of derailing topics so we can make feedback suggestions. :lol: I actually addressed this at one point, making "solo" gear and "PVE" gear itemized differently. I originally said soloing gear could be light on damage (making you less useful as DPS in a raid) and would split between survival and DPS stats, making gear that isn't good at much beyond letting you last longer against stronger enemies on your own. Then raiding gear could be much more highly specialized, heavily skewed towards support or assault. That would take a system like they're making now, but I think it would work unless it was found that extra survivability was exploitable in some mechanic or another. Still, DPS are judged on damage, tanks and healers on support, and thus neither benefits from splitting them down the middle. Another good suggestion made during that thread was that there could be a new stat for piercing that attacks a damage reducing stat on PVE content. Therefore, you'd get equipment from soloing that would increase your stats, but the extra attack power you get wouldn't pierce "Advanced Armor" or whatever. That would only come from PVE gear, which would have a stat that ignores a percentage of that reduction, a bit like PVP power and PVP defense. It also seemed like a good idea. Then, people would have progression in both paths. I would recommend highly that Wildstar rip off FFXIV's gear armory setup if they go this far with different gear progressions, though. You don't want to truck around that much gear to be able to switch once a queue pops. | |} ---- The first MMO that puts in a continuous, randomly-generated dungeon crawl a la Diablo, with a similar scaling system to what Carbine used for the housing expeditions, will be the first MMO to have a truly endless PvE end game. It has aspects that would appeal to players who enjoy dungeons, it would be accessible to solo'ers, it wouldn't be negatively impacted if friends wanted to cooperate, and the randomized environments would appeal to explorers as well. ANet caught onto this with GW2's Fractals, but fell well short of a truly randomized dungeon. IMO, raids only have a better time vs. reward ratio if players are actually playing the content, and participation seems to be extremely limited right now, judging by the paltry number of guilds and groups Carbine just mentioned on Nexus Report this week or possibly last week. I don't begrudge anyone their respective new content, but MMO devs need to start thinking way outside the box when it comes to PvE endgame. New zones and a continuation of the core story are important, but it's been proven time and time again that that alone isn't going to hold anyone's attention for long, and not everyone even sees raids as an eventual goal. | |} ---- You know, to be honest, Wildstar's got the best excuse for this kind of randomized dungeon system using pre-programmed and randomized plugs. They have entire IC virtual environments. I wouldn't be surprised to know this continuous randomized dungeon idea is on a markerboard somewhere. | |} ---- I hope so. And, considering that the adventures are all simulated by the Caretaker, it could even just be explained away as a grandiose training exercise. | |} ---- ---- A lot of them already are on the PTR. At least for housing. For everything that isn't, they didn't say any ETAs. But a lot of the stuff he mentioned was definitely on the PTR, like the item limit increase, lighting increase, ground, music, etc. | |} ---- Ok that's strange because i have the PTR downloaded and up to date but the item limit in housing is still 300 and there is no option to change the Terrain. Though the music change is in. | |} ---- ---- Yeah, he definitely said in the stream that the terrain and item limit increase is on the PTR, at least according to my own summary (and I don't usually write it unless I heard it on the stream). You can always head over to the PTR forums and ask, or head to the housing forum. Chard is on the forums a lot. His username is Lamenth. | |} ---- Yeah, it's apparently been there since launch, according to most people. Which is strange, because I distinctly remember not being able to destroy anything, not having a delete button, and asking about it to be told that there was no way yet. I have no reason to doubt anyone, though. God only knows what was going on. | |} ---- yeah i'll do that :) Thanks for writing up this post | |} ---- No problem! Happy to keep people informed :D | |} ---- He said that they managed to get the terrain and item limit increase to work in internal testing, not the public test realm. We still got to wait a bit before that comes to us. | |} ---- See below. Thanks Brutz! | |} ---- Ok just tested :) ! You select the item in your crate with LMB and the delete button lights up (lower left of crate). It won't if you RMB it first then LMB. Have to not be in the world in the first place. | |} ---- I had that problem too. Ive reselected all types and got the delete button working properly. Seems to be a small glitch. | |} ---- Thanks! | |} ---- ---- ---- They're racists. | |} ---- They are the 99%. | |} ---- ---- Yeah, there's a lot going on, and this is just the housing stuff. I do one of these weekly with the tag NexusReportTLDR, and there's a lot coming down the road in pretty much all facets of the game. It's kind of amazing when you think about how much they're getting out in just a month or two. I've got a lot of respect for Carbine. | |} ---- ---- Me too. I was planning on putting together a sky fortress for my guild to hang out at, and was wondering how I was going to fit an Exile spacious house in. Now I'm kind of interested to see the interior dimensions of this blank plug and wondering if I can build something out of blocks around it to act as a bar or other structures. | |} ---- I am going to buy the game three extra times just so I can upvote this more*. I was about to post a similar idea, but you got to it already. I'm reminded of games like Angband, only not so primitive. Huge variety of enemies, infinitely variable terrain (especially in some of the variants). Make the major rewards take longer to achieve than in raiding (to compensate for being easier to organize) and a bit less powerful (see below), but make incremental increases in character power small but very frequent. To point to D3, lot drops hand over fist, and once you start end game gearing, increases in power tend to be small incremental increases. The game is popular because rate of reward seems about right - there's gear, Paragon, legendary gems etc. All small changes, but with a few set breakpoints that feel like bursts to keep you going for the next big increase. As far as differentiating raiding and small group gear, create an effect on any gear obtained through raiding "Stats on this item are increased x% when in instanced end-game raids", but otherwise have the same stats as other comparable gear from other tracks. That way, they're focused at excelling in a raid environment, but everyone has parity in the normal outdoors environment. Voila! Raiders feel special, everyone has content, everyone gets progression, it can still be all hardcore etc. And we all get to have fun in the manner of our own choosing. _____________ * DISCLAIMER: no I'm not. | |} ---- Unfortunately, while it's possible (as I said), it's going to look a bit weird. It does in D3, for instance. You've got these labyrinthine mazes with essentially dungeon "blocks" that connect randomly as you go. This works fairly well in 3d isometric, but in an actual 3d world is a LOT more complicated to pull off since everything has to match perfectly and to end without causing a clipping problem. And then there's the complaints that might flow in about RNG on top of loot already because you don't always get the same people. And you'll get arguments about whether you want to fullclear for loot or skip to the end for a medal. This can be implemented in an intelligent way, though, and I think Wildstar's the best game to do it. Scenery might not look as detailed, but they can maybe get around that. As long as we don't know what's coming. And as I mentioned, Wildstar actually has an excuse for this (a lot of dungeons and instances are Matrix-like computer worlds where virtual reality becomes reality). It would really be a step above adventures. But I imagine anything like this would still be a way down the road. | |} ----